This email I received from a professor yesterday seems apropos:
From: Jim To the MGH Institute Community
Early Wednesday evening I put a bag of popcorn in the fourth floor microwave, dialed in "4.00 min", punched the "Start" button and walked back to my desk. Between the next two and sixty minutes my inattention resulted in a smoke-filled fourth floor, the forced evacuation of our building, the immediate arrival of three fire and rescue vehicles, Tony F. being called away from his dinner at home, and the remote reprogramming of the ventilation system in order to clear the air of its pungent smell.
I would like to apologize to everyone whose work was disturbed and whose life was disrupted by my actions this evening. There are some lessons here, beyond the obvious ones of "Read Directions" and "Those who like to eat should learn to cook". The most important, perhaps, is "Pay attention to what you are doing". The line between danger and disturbance can be a thin one, and I brought us close to it this evening.
I am truly sorry for all of the above, and I appreciate the on-the-spot counseling I received from many of my peers while we waited through this event to run its course. The good news is that our emergency response systems worked well, and that it wasn't raining.
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branchandroot
Fire!
Date: 2006-11-17 06:39 pm (UTC)From: Jim
To the MGH Institute Community
Early Wednesday evening I put a bag of popcorn in the fourth floor microwave, dialed in "4.00 min", punched the "Start" button and walked back to my desk. Between the next two and sixty minutes my inattention resulted in a smoke-filled fourth floor, the forced evacuation of our building, the immediate arrival of three fire and rescue vehicles, Tony F. being called away from his dinner at home, and the remote reprogramming of the ventilation system in order to clear the air of its pungent smell.
I would like to apologize to everyone whose work was disturbed and whose life was disrupted by my actions this evening. There are some lessons here, beyond the obvious ones of "Read Directions" and "Those who like to eat should learn to cook". The most important, perhaps, is "Pay attention to what you are doing". The line between danger and disturbance can be a thin one, and I brought us close to it this evening.
I am truly sorry for all of the above, and I appreciate the on-the-spot counseling I received from many of my peers while we waited through this event to run its course. The good news is that our emergency response systems worked well, and that it wasn't raining.